CIA Chile

The Washington merry-go-round

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Jack Anderson

WASHINGTON - Chiles
controversial military dictatorship
appears to have an inside track in
Washington.

At least two top-level representatives
of the junta have paid recent visits to the
nation’s capital, where the red carpet
was rolled out for them. A third delegate
is expected to hit town this Friday.

The most notorious of the Chilean
visitors was Col. Manuel
Contreras-Sepulveda, head of the
infamous National Intelligence
Directorate, known as DINA. It is this
military organization — a Latin
American version of the CIA, FBI and
Defense Intelligence Agency all lumped
together — which has been directly
responsible for the arrests and torture of
hundreds of political prisoners over the
past two years.

Before coming to Washington
Contreras stopped off in New York. He
paid a quiet visit to the United Nations,
where officials are preparing a report on
human rights violations in Chile.

Three months ago, a U.N. working
group on human rights attempted to visit
Santiago for an on-the-scene
investigation, but the junta abruptly
canceled their invitation. In his talks
with U.N. officials, say our sources,
Contreras attempted to convince them
the U.N. group was barred only because
it consisted of Marxists, assorted leftists
and troublemakers.

Contreras then hopped down to
Washington, where his
goings-and-comings were considered so
secret that even the Chilean embassy
was kept in the dark.

We have learned, however, that the
colonel stopped off at the CIA where, say
our sources, a private chat was arranged
with the deputy director, Lt. Gen.
Vernon Walters.

The State Department, meanwhile,
was unofficially asked to suggest a few
people Contreras might see. The
department cooperated but scrupulously
recommended the colonel visit some
Senators and Congressmen who are
critical of the junta. On Capitol Hill,
Contreras faced his only unfriendly
audience. He wandered into the offices of
Sen. Frank Church, D.-Idaho, but could
find no one to>talk with. Staffers recall
him as a “short, round” man who

appeared “blase and somewhat
disoriented.”

Contreras also visited the House
International Organization
subcommittee, headed by Rep. Donald
Fraser, D.-Minn. There he was sternly
interrogated by a subcommittee staff
member about human rights violations
in Chile. The colonel responded with the
familiar claim that reports of the killing
and torture of political prisoners were a
Marxist plot to embarrass the junta.

Another prominent Chilean who
passed through Washington, shortly
before Contreras came to town, was the
junta’s press attache, Federico
Willoughby. He suffers from a chronic
kidney problem and came to the United
States primarily for medical tests at
Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

During his 10-day stay, however,
Willoughby visited the CIA, the State
Department and several congressmen.
He managed to see Sen. Church, who told
our associate Joe Spear that he gave the
Chilean a long, stiff lecture on human
rights.

This Friday, the junta’s minister of
justice, Miguel Schweitzer, is scheduled
to arrive in Washington. His main
mission, say our sources, will be to lobby
in favor of a resumption of U.S. military
aid to Chile, which was cut off by
Congress last December.

Meanwhile, Sen. Edward Kennedy,
D.-Mass., has informed the Senate CIA
committee of the Contreras trip and has
requested it to be investigated. We have
learned independently that committee
staff members are preparing written
requests for information concerning the
visit.

Our own inquiries at the CIA about the
Walters-Contreras meeting, meanwhile,
produced only a cun “no comment.” *

Footnote: The Chilean visitors are not
the only controversial people who have
been able to gain access to top U.S.
officials. Giorgio Almirante, the Italian
neo-Fascist leader, came to Washington
in September, and met with two officials
of the National Security Council.

EXPOSED NERVES: Last month, we
reported that members of Congress have
been getting free dental care from the
navy. The story caused more anguish at
the Washington Navy Yard dental clinic
than an exposed nerve.

- It is illegal, our story charged, for
Navy dentists to fix congressional teeth
at no cost. Navy regulations, of course,
authorize free emergency treatment.
But the distinguished patients from
Capitol Hill received deluxe dental care.

Capt. Stewart Elder, the clinic
commander, justified the illegal
treatment by telling his colleagues it
would help the clinic at budget time.
Here’s what happened after our story
was written:

—Sen. William Hathaway, D.-Me., was
sitting in the dental chair on the morning
our story appeared about his illegal root
canal work. His nervous Navy dentist,
Capt. Roger Flagg, sent Hathaway to the
front office, which referred him to a
private dentist since the work was “not
of an emergency nature.”

—Sen. Mark Hatfield, R.-Ore,, whom
we had named as one of the clinic’s
regular patients, hastily canceled his
future appointments.

Sen. Mike Mansfield, D.-Mont., rushed
a payment to the clinic to cover his past
dental work. This created an awkward
problem for the Navy, which has no
provision for accepting individual
payments.

—An angry Capt. Elder transferred an
enlisted woman, Vicky Kaiser, out of the
clinic although she had been there less
than a month. He wrongly suspected she
was one of our sources.

—Another suspect, Seaman Michael
Aird, was also shipped out although he
previously had been promised he would
not be transferred. Capt. Elder was
wrong about him, too.

—However, other enlisted personnel

and civilian technicians, carrying Xerox
copies of our column in their pockets,
continued to furnish us with information.
They told us, for example, that the
captain had been dissatisfied with the
quarterly figures on the number of
cavities filled and molars extracted,
and, therefore, had penciled in
fraudulent figures.

—Clinic officials also told the Navy
press office no records were available
other than for this year detailing
treatment given to members of
Congress. In fact, log books kept by
various Navy dentists contain this
information.

Footnote: The prominent patients,
who accepted free dental work, said they
were unaware it was illegal. A Navy
spokesman acknowledged most of the
facts in this report. He said there “was
no evidence/’ however, that Capt.
Elder’s quarterly reports contain
fraudulent figures. He also claimed the
Kaiser and Aird transfers were part of
the normal rotation.